


Remedial Leadership

by Goddess47



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-01-21
Updated: 2012-01-23
Packaged: 2017-10-29 21:17:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/324264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Goddess47/pseuds/Goddess47
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dr. Weir was killed shortly after arriving in Atlantis, and since it's a Civilian Expedition, McKay is left in charge...<br/>This is way out of Rodney's comfort zone, even though Sheppard is in a similar position, now Ranking Military Officer. They figure out how to work together to keep the expeditional going.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Lesson 1

**Author's Note:**

> Started in 2007 (meep!) as a result of a general challenge from Ghostforge... it's taken a long time to pull it all together...

"I hate this fucking job," Dr. Rodney McKay moaned to himself. He was past anger and into serious frustration. He sat back in the chair and rubbed his eyes. He was tired and getting hungry, which fueled his foul mood. And it was only mid-morning, with his senior staff coming in shortly for a meeting.

He should get something to eat. Otherwise this meeting would go worse than he might expect. He wasn’t cut out for this. He could run a lab. Running a city – that was something he wasn’t so sure he could do.

If only Elizabeth hadn’t died, he thought for the millionth time. Elizabeth Weir was perfect for this job. She knew how to handle people. Rodney snorted to himself. People skills – that was something he knew he sucked at. But she had wanted to explore the city with them. If they hadn’t opened that one lab..... He sighed. They were lucky to lose only two people that day. They had slowed down their explorations after that.

He looked at a clock. If he hurried, he could get down to the kitchen and get some coffee and maybe a muffin. He got up and stopped as he saw Zelenka coming up the stairs. Damn, there went his snack.

"Yes. What now?" he asked brusquely before Zelenka could say anything.

"Dr. McKay, I need some of your time in the lab this afternoon," Radek Zelenka demanded. "That thing, your experiment, it either needs to be finished or dismantled. I need space."

Rodney took a mental deep breath. "Zelenka, we’ve been over this before. Find another space and leave my experiment alone. It’s not like there isn’t any other lab space."

"But that is best space," Zelenka protested.

"Which is exactly why I took it in the first place," Rodney retorted.

Zelenka stood between him and the kitchen and while he didn’t want to have this debate, Rodney knew he had to try to work with him. He almost laughed at the irony. Rodney McKay, trying to be reasonable.

He gave up entirely on the idea of a snack and went into the conference room they used for large group meetings. Rodney knew he spent entirely too much time in that room. The rest of the senior staff started to gather. As they settled in, Major Sheppard waltzed in with a small tray. Rodney could smell the coffee and his mouth watered. "Did you bring enough to share, Major?" he asked.

"Nope, just for me and you," Sheppard grinned. He slid a cup of coffee in front of Rodney and a plate of cookies. Rodney grabbed at the coffee like it was the last cup in Atlantis. Sheppard sat down next to him and put the cookies between them.

"Thanks," Rodney mumbled around a cookie. He swallowed and said briskly, "Okay, status reports, please."

Rodney looked at the group around him. Scientists, engineers, military, support staff. How the hell did you learn to care about laundry? He wanted to scream. But after Elizabeth died, it turned out that he was the next highest ranking civilian. That put him in charge, since this was technically still a civilian-run expedition. He knew how to run a lab. He just didn’t know how to run a city.

Major Sheppard’s report was last. Since it had been quiet since the last meeting, his report was the shortest. But in thinking about it, Sheppard was pretty much in the same boat as he was. When Colonel Sumner was killed by the Wraith, Sheppard had to step up and take charge of the military. Hmmm....

"Okay," Rodney wrapped it up. "Anything else?" Seeing nothing, he said, "Thanks, everyone." That’s how Elizabeth had ended the few meetings she had run. It seemed to work, since everyone picked up the things they had brought and started to leave the room.

"Major? Stay a minute," Rodney said. It wasn’t as much a request as a plea.

"Sure," Sheppard said as the others filed out. He sat back in the chair he had during the meeting. After the room emptied, Sheppard asked, "What do you need, Dr. McKay?"

Rodney rubbed his forehead again, with the beginning of a headache. "Um.. Thanks for the coffee. Before, that is," he ground to a halt. He wasn’t sure what he wanted. He just wanted someone to talk to.

Sheppard grinned. "Knew you work better with coffee and food. I had you pegged for my team and Dr. Beckett had warned my about your hypoglycemia. Figured anything that would make you less cranky would make these damn meetings easier." And something had nagged in his head to do it. He kept that to himself.

"Cranky?" Rodney demanded. "I get cranky? In meetings?" Sheppard let him be. Rodney sighed. "Okay. So I get a bit.... Well... Cranky..." But then he grinned. "Thanks." Then he parsed through what else Sheppard had said. "What do you mean ‘pegged for your team’?"

Sheppard shrugged. "Was looking for a scientist to be a fourth member. Ford’s still wet behind the ears, so I wanted to keep him with me. Teyla’s our spokesperson. You’d figure things out for us," he said easily.

Rodney was oddly touched. He was the stereotypical last-kid-picked-for-anything. And that Sheppard had wanted him..... That made a whole month of bad days go away. Then reality hit him. He’d never get to go with them.

Sheppard could see the emotions run across McKay’s face. "Hey, doesn’t mean you can’t ever go," he said softly.

"Yeah. Right. Who’s going to make sure we have meals and laundry and keep Zelenka and Cavanaugh from killing each other?" Rodney asked bitterly. He looked at Sheppard. "I can’t... I.... How do you manage?" he finally blurted out.

Ah! That’s what was behind this. "Well, the first thing is that you have to have fewer meetings," said Sheppard. "Or at least fewer large group meetings. The laundry people really don’t care about Zelenka’s newest trinket. And I really don’t care about the medical scanner that Beckett found."

"Unless you’re the one it’s being used on," Rodney pointed out.

"But I don’t care what he’s using, just that it works," Sheppard pointed out. "If you had smaller, targeted sessions, we could share pretty much the same information, just do it faster."

"But, Elizabeth..." Rodney started.

Sheppard waved his hand dismissively. "That was her style. You need to find your own, is all," he said reasonably. "Like this. You and I should talk almost all the time. Between us, we run everything. Weir and Sumner never would have done that, but I think you and I do better together." Sheppard paused. And admitted softly, "And, well, sometimes, I need someone to talk to, too."

Rodney stared. Major John Sheppard not having someone to talk to? He talked to everyone. But Rodney sat back and though about it. Sheppard listened to everyone. In reflection, Rodney realized that Sheppard took things in, but the Major never let anyone inside that barrier that was only centimeters from his skin. So it looked like John was everyone’s friend. In reality, he probably didn’t have a real friend on Atlantis.

"Can’t promise not to get cranky," Rodney said, but with a grin.

"And stop trying to be nice," John – and it was John in his head now, and not Major Sheppard – said. "It’s not natural. You never worried about people liking what you had to say before. Don’t start now. You’re in charge. Do it."

"Oh, thank god," breathed Rodney. "That’s been the most horrid part of this. I’m not good at being nice and everyone knows it." Rodney’s eyes narrowed. "Damn them. They’ve been taking advantage of that, haven’t they?" he demanded.

John laughed. "Knew you were a genius," he said. He stood. "Interested in lunch, Dr. McKay?" John asked.

"Why, Major Sheppard, never thought you’d ask!" Rodney replied.

They went down to lunch together. Rodney realized that, together, they could do anything.


	2. Lesson 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rodney looks for some help.

"Major, I need one of your Marines," demanded Dr. Rodney McKay.

Major John Sheppard looked at him for a moment and leaned back in his chair. "Why, McKay, I didn’t think any of my Marines, as you call them, were your type," John replied with a grin.

"My type?" spluttered Rodney. "What are you..." Rodney stopped and John watched him actually blush. "Oh. Har. Har. Very funny," Rodney said rolling his eyes. "No, I mean I would like to have one of your Marines work with one of the scientists to take care of some of this administrative crap that needs to be done."

"Well, that’s an interesting proposition," John temporized. "What did you have in mind?" He didn’t want to commit any of the Marines until he knew what McKay was thinking.

"This is your fault, you know," Rodney answered. "It was your idea to delegate some of this work, and now I need someone to delegate it to. And it’s not fair to make the civilians do all the work since your Marines live here too."

Well, that was actually reasonable, John thought. But he wasn’t going to give in to Rodney easily. "Well, we could work out a trade, as a thought," he offered.

Rodney sighed. "What kind of a trade?" he asked suspiciously.

John grinned. "I’ll give you... hmmm.... Sergeant Bates... if you’ll do weapons training," John suggested airily. But he wanted to see how Rodney would react.

Rodney choked on the coffee he was drinking. "Weapons training? Why in the world would I need weapons training?" Rodney demanded. "And why would I ever agree to that?"

Sheppard drawled, "Well, for one thing, it’s the only way I’m going to give you Bates. Even though I’ll grant you it’s a good idea." He had to give Rodney credit for that. "But there will come a time you will want to go off Atlantis for some damn fool reason or another, and I’m not taking you until you’ve had weapons training."

Rodney looked up at that. He narrowed his eyes, considering the implications of the offer. The thought of going off world was tempting. Sheppard had told him that he had wanted Rodney for his team before Elizabeth had died. He’d like to think this was one way Sheppard was making it up to him.

"But I don’t have enough time to do the lab work I already need to do," Rodney protested. "I don’t have time for weapons training."

"But you have enough time to do the work you want Bates for," John pointed out. "Think of it as a trade off. You should come out ahead in the long run." John shrugged. "Your loss, then." He let that hang.

Rodney sighed. He needed the help and Sheppard played dirty. "Okay, okay. Once a week.." he started.

"Three times," John immediately countered. "Shorter sessions are better than longer ones for this."

"I get Bates full time," Rodney counter-offered.

"Unless there’s an emergency," John had to concede.

"Yes. Yes. Yes," Rodney waved his hands.

"Which of the scientists were you thinking of?" John asked, curious.

Rodney grinned, "Miko Kusanagi."

John thought about that for a minute. He didn’t know her well, but was interested in anyone that Rodney would assign to this. "Bates will like that, I suspect." John offered.

"Miko can hold her own," Rodney conceded. "She almost knows how to pay attention to details." Coming from Rodney, that was high praise. "I thought the two of them could handle most of the day-to-day living things that need taking care of. Laundry, food, housekeeping, that sort of thing. If they can organize those, that’ll take a load out of here."

Bates wouldn’t be thrilled about the work, John realized, but he’d do a decent job of it. And until they found a way to get in contact with Earth, they all needed to pitch in.

"Okay, then, come on," John said, standing.

"Wha... go where?" Rodney asked suspiciously.

"For that weapons training," John said patiently. "We might was well start now. Come on." John moved toward the door of the office.

Rodney sighed. "Okay, okay," he agreed, reluctance obvious in his voice. Suddenly the idea of getting out of this office and doing something was powerful. Not that he’d admit it.

At the range, Rodney found he wasn’t completely inept with a gun. Almost completely inept, maybe, but not totally. But John was patient and made him go through basic target shooting with a pistol for the better part of an hour.

At one point, John had to stand next to Rodney and physically to get him into a proper shooting position. John put one hand on Rodney’s back and the other under Rodney’s elbow and twisted him slightly. He held Rodney in position and said, "Now try it." That shot almost hit where Rodney was aiming.

"For someone with the manual dexterity you have in the lab, you have lousy muscle control shooting a gun," John observed. "We’ll have to keep working on this is all," he shrugged. John reached down and picked up a small box. "Here," he said, handing the box to Rodney.

"What’s that?" Rodney asked, not taking the box.

"Gun cleaning kit," John said. "You get a gun dirty, you have to clean it."

"I don’t..." Rodney started to protest. The look John gave him left him no choice but to take the box.

"It’ll make you more familiar with how the gun works, if nothing else," John told him. "Taking it apart to clean it will help you get familiar with the feel of the gun." He grinned. "And it can’t make you any worse."

"Oh, sure, mock the poor scientist," Rodney moaned. His arm ached from the shooting, not badly, but enough to know that he had done something new. Maybe that was enough. Looking for new experiences was why he had come to Atlantis in the first place. He turned to John, "When can we do this again?"


	3. Lesson 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rodney learns that management-by-walking-around works in Atlantis.

"If I have to read another lousy report, I'm going to scream," Rodney McKay whined to himself. It wasn't just that is was another report. It was lousy – poorly written and mostly meaningless. He didn't learn anything from it and reading it wasted his time. That was probably the most annoying part. He hated wasting time with drivel. 

Rodney reached for his communicator and then hesitated. He hated to bother John just to complain about reading reports. He sighed and decided to suck it up and slog through a few more. He opened the next report and started reading but hadn't gotten more than a few paragraphs before his patience gave out.

Rodney shut down the report, resisted saying what he really thought about it and sent it back. _Make this readable before you send it back,_ Rodney wrote. _You're wasting my time with unintelligible drivel._ Rodney hit 'send.'

"One more chance," Rodney said to himself. "Someone has got to get this right." He scrolled through the list and found one he had hopes for. _Kusanagi and Bates._ He held his breath and opened the file. Finally. Concise, clear and honest. "They even admitted to the laundry screw up. Damn," he said. He sent a _thank you –R_ as a reply.

The one good report gave him the patience to try reading several others, but he sent them all back with scathing messages to redo the report – immediately. He was tired of trying to run Atlantis with bad information. Not for the first time, he wondered how Elizabeth Weir would have managed. But she had died and he was now in charge. He had learned that he had to do this his own way, and figuring this out was one of the lessons he had to learn.

He looked around the office and knew he had to get out. But he didn't know where to go. He wasn't scheduled to meet with John for his weapon's training and he knew Zelenka was using the lab for an experiment that shouldn't be interrupted at this point. Exploring the city on his own was still too dangerous. Rodney didn't have any place to go, and that felt... well, it didn't feel good. 

Okay, maybe coffee would work. He could go down to the kitchen and see if he could get some coffee and a snack. It was only mid-afternoon and the kitchen would be quiet. Anything would be better than sitting here any longer.

No one stopped Rodney as he walked to the kitchen area. Oh, he realized. They're pissed about having to re-do their reports. They'll get over it, he decided. As he walked in, he saw Bates talking with one of the cooks. "Sergeant," Rodney said, "any chance a tired man can get a cup of coffee?"

Bates looked up at the question and said, "Sure, Dr. McKay. Give us a minute?"

Rodney nodded, "Not a problem, thanks." 

"Grab a seat and I'll bring it out?" Bates said.

"You don't have to..." Rodney started to protest.

"Not a problem," Bates said firmly. "Go and sit." He waved Rodney out to the eating area.

Rodney put his laptop down and sat at a table not too far from the kitchen area and Bates came out shortly with not only a mug of coffee but a plate that he slid in front of Rodney.

Rodney smiled, "Damn, just what I needed! Thanks." He took a cookie and bit into it and hmmm'd in happiness. "Sit… sit..." he said to Bates.

Bates looked uncomfortable for a moment, but grabbed a chair anyways. "Do you need anything else?" Bates asked. He didn't sit as much as perch, as if to be able to get away quickly.

Rodney thought for a second. "You and Kusanagi are the only ones who can write a decent report around here. Well, except for Major Sheppard and a couple other," Rodney found himself saying. "How is that?"

Bates shifted in his chair and looked down at the table. He cleared his throat and said, "Well, Dr. Kusanagi... well, she writes most of the reports for both of us." He looked at Rodney and admitted, "She says if we are to take care of things properly, we must tell both the good and the bad."

"Exactly," replied Rodney. "If no one knows what is going wrong, how can we fix it?" He waved his free hand. "That's the universal 'we' mind you."

He saw Bates relax fractionally. Rodney knew he wasn't always the best when it came to dealing with people but even he could take a hint when hit over the head with it. He finished up his coffee, pickup up his laptop and said, "Thanks for the cookies, Sergeant." Bates nodded as Rodney went off.

Walking pretty much at random, Rodney found himself in the botany lab. He shook his head, since stepping in there was more than likely to set of any one of his pollen allergies. But, he wasn't going to back down now. He walked into the lab and everyone looked up, startled to see the Chief Science Office and Head of the Expedition walking into the lab. Rodney snorted to himself. This was too much fun, he should have done this weeks ago.

He stood still for a minute and once he had the attention of everyone there, he said loudly, "Okay. A gold star for the first person to tell me one thing that's important that went wrong in the last week." 

Silence. "Come on," Rodney said, disgusted. "We're dealing with life-sucking vampires, a city that can kill us if we don't pay attention and we don't know when we're going to get back in contact with Earth again. You can't tell me everything is peachy-keen."

A movement from the back of the lab and a voice that said meekly, "Sir?"

"Yes, yes," Rodney said brusquely. Then he remembered something John had said. His voice softened and said, "Tell me who you are?" _Learn who they are,_ John had said. _It's easier, and harder, that way._

"Dr. Susan Greene," the woman said softly.

Rodney wrote it down, aware that he was obviously taking notes, to make sure he got it right. He knew they were watching him write it down, also. "Alright, Dr. Greene, what do you have for me?"

"Well, the hydroponics greenhouse that we've started has developed a fungal growth that we can't yet identify. Until we can get it under control and identify it, we won't be able to grow anything edible in there."

"Excellent!" Rodney said. "What do you need to fix it?"

"Well, Dr. Rodriguez thinks..." she started.

Rodney stopped her with a glare. He said carefully, "I asked what do _you_ need to fix it?" He mentally crossed his fingers. 

He was rewarded by the relief in her eyes, but she kept her voice steady. "I want to empty out the watering system, scrub out the tubs and purge the system with bleach. Or whatever we have that would have a similar effect. Then we start over."

Rodney wrote it down, and looked up at her. "Reports every three days, good or bad. If it doesn't work, tell me why. Got it?"

She nodded at him. "Thank you," she said softly, but there was a look of delight in her eyes.

"Then go back to work," Rodney huffed. He looked up, "That means all of you." He left without saying anything else.

Rodney managed to do wreak similar havoc in biology and astronomy before he ended up in electrical engineering. Interestingly enough, the electrical problem was in the report in his in-basket that he hadn't gotten to. "I couldn't read another written report," he admitted to Dr. El-Abrahim, the head of the department. "Sorry." 

Knowing that several of his colleagues had their reports sent back to them with somewhat unprofessional comments, Dr. El-Abrahim could understand the frustration on both sides. But he also knew that was as much of an apology he was going to get from Dr. McKay. 

Rodney wandered back to his office to close down before dinner. As he was reading the report from electrical engineering that really did outline the problem and was pretty well written, John stopped in.

"What the hell have you been doing McKay?" he asked, curious, sitting on the chair opposite Rodney's desk. 

"I've decided I'm tired of not learning about things we do ourselves that can kill us," he declared, somewhat defensively. "So I went out looking for it."

John thought that through. It wasn't terribly different from any standard risk assessment that he would have done in planning a military exercise. 

Rodney looked up from the report he was no longer reading and forced himself to ask, "And what should you be telling me that no one else has?"

After his knee-jerk reaction that Rodney should be treating him different, John stopped and forced himself to be honest. He shouldn't be any different and he wasn't being a friend to Rodney if he wouldn't let Rodney call him on it. 

Rodney watched John's reaction and tried not to let his personal concern show through. John's friendship meant a lot to him, but he had to place the welfare of the expedition ahead of his personal happiness. When John didn't immediately react, and, even better, didn't react badly, Rodney let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding. Happiness? When did John and _happy_ become connected in his head? 

John looked down at his feet as he answered slowly, "You know, I didn't even think I was doing it, until you asked. But it's too easy to shade information on the positive side and forget that it affects everyone. With no backup and limited resources, it's too tempting to try to be optimistic." He looked up at Rodney and said, eyes bleak, "In trying to protect you from even more bad news, I'm not doing you any favors, am I?" 

"Oh, god, don't tell me we're almost out of ammunition or something like that," Rodney said gloomily.

John had to grin. He could count on Rodney to go to the worse case scenario. "No, no, no. Nothing anywhere as serious as that," John reassured him. "It's just that there are some morale issues among the Marines that I've been trying to handle myself. Some of them aren't as happy here as I would like – they aren't getting along so I'm juggling assignments to minimize that. Couple of the others are having problems getting along with the science staff." 

"Hell, _I_ have problems getting along with the science staff," Rodney huffed. "And I guess I wouldn't be much help with your morale issues. But you can talk at me about them if you want," Rodney offered.

"How about over some dinner?" John asked. Having someone he could talk to was one of the reasons he made friends with Rodney. He wondered when the friendship had become more important to him than anything else. 

Rodney beamed. Dinner with John would be the best part of the day. Maybe John and _happy_ did go together. "Yes, I'd like that!"


	4. Lesson 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sheppard's gate team is over-due.

"Where the fuck is.." Rodney swallowed the is he that he had been going to say aloud and finished his question as "...are they?"

Peter Grodin, the gate technician, looked up at Dr. Rodney McKay, head of the Atlantis Expedition. He had gotten used to Dr. McKay's hovering in the gate room when any of the teams were off world. Two-day-overdue teams resulted in more hovering.

"Sorry, sir," said Grodin. "They've missed the last two check-ins." He knew Dr. McKay knew this, it was part of the dance they did. Check-in should happen daily, unless other arrangements had been made. Missing two check-ins meant a team was out of contact for two days.

"If they miss their next check-in, we'll send a MALP," Rodney told him. Grodin nodded, accepting that Rodney would be back before the next check-in time.

Knowing there was nothing he could do, Rodney went back to his office to fret in private. "Where the fuck are you?" Rodney could ask his rhetorical question in private.

For it was Major John Sheppard's team that was overdue. John, Teyla Emmagen, Lieutenant Aiden Ford, and Dr. Radek Zalenka were Atlantis' first and best team. The team Rodney would have been on if Dr. Elizabeth Weir hadn't died mere weeks after arriving in Atlantis. Being the next highest ranking civilian in the expedition, leadership he didn't want had fallen squarely into Rodney's lap.

"Oh, fuck," Rodney realized. If he had been on John's team, he would be overdue and not Zalenka. He put his head on his desk and forced himself to breathe deeply to control the panic attack. He had to concentrate hard on breathing to keep the panic at bay.

Knowing any work he tried to do now would only have to be re-done later, Rodney didn't even pretend to try to do anything. Fuck. When did it get so bad that he couldn't function when John was overdue like this? Rodney sighed in frustration at the unfairness of it all. And he waited.

"Dr. McKay?" came Grodin's voice in his earpiece, startling Rodney out of the doze he must have fallen into. 

"Yes?" answered Rodney, hopefully. Ow. Ow. Ow. His back hurt as he straightened up from this desk. He should know better.

"Sorry, sir. They've missed another check-in," Grodin said carefully.

Damn. "Okay, get a MALP ready and I'll be right there," Rodney replied. He went into the small bathroom adjacent to his office and splashed water on his face to help clear his head. He looked at himself in the mirror and saw how haggard he looked. Not wonder Grodin was handling him like he might break. This might actually do it. A deep breath and he went out into the gate room.

 _Say thank you occasionally, Rodney_ , John's voice floated into his head. "Good job," Rodney said to the crew that had gotten the MALP ready. Nods from the techs confirmed that it was the right thing to do. Grodin dialed the gate and the MALP trundled through.

Rodney peered at the monitor as the MALP sent images back to Atlantis. As the camera panned the horizon, Rodney tensed. "What's that?" he demanded, pointing to a section of the screen.

Grodin looked closely and said, "I think it's smoke. Wasn't there when we sent the MALP through before they left." He fiddled with the zoom and they could clearly see a several bands of smoke rising in the distance.

Rodney tapped his communicator. "Stackhouse? I need a rescue team here in fifteen minutes to go out after Major Sheppard." After getting an acknowledgement, Rodney made another call. "Beckett? I'm sending a rescue team out after Major Sheppard. Can you give me someone to go with them?"

Carson Beckett's calm, "Aye, Rodney. Be there shortly," was reassuring.

The fifteen minutes to assemble the team was an eternity. Once he had given the orders, there was actually nothing for Rodney to do but watch and wait. Beckett came with the medic he was sending and asked, "What do we know?"

"Nothing as yet," Rodney answered, grateful for the distraction. "Sheppard's team has missed three check-ins and we're seeing a large area of smoke in the distance. I'm assuming there's a problem."

The rescue team went through the gate. From the other end, Stackhouse reported, "Not seeing anything here. We'll move in the direction of the smoke. I'll send the MALP back after you shut down the gate." All the gate teams knew that there were a very limited number of MALPs and the devices were protected as much as possible. People came first, but valuable resources were hoarded.

The gate shut down and a minute later it was reactivated. "Stackhouse's IDC," Grodin confirmed.

"Lower the shield," Rodney commanded, unnecessarily. A minute later the MALP trundled back into the gate room. The techs worked to move it out of the way of the gate.

Beckett knew Rodney wouldn't relax until there was any news, he asked, "I need a cup of tea. Come with me?"

Rodney looked up and had to stop to process the question. "Uh, I don't..." he stuttered.

"Just a quick cup, Rodney," Beckett said softly. "You need to let them work and there's nothing you can do here." Beckett placed a hand on Rodney's shoulder to make sure he had Rodney's attention.

Don't hover unless you can do something. Let people do their jobs. John's voice echoed into Rodney's head again, reinforcing Beckett's sentiment. Rodney caved in and said to Beckett, "Okay, you're right." Rodney turned to Grodin and said, "Call me if you need anything."

After a few minutes, Rodney was grateful to Beckett for dragging him out of the gate room. He had to focus to eat the food Beckett had placed in front of him. "You need to eat, Rodney," Beckett said firmly. They didn't talk but Beckett didn't move until Rodney had eaten everything he had brought from the kitchen.

Rodney looked at the empty dishes in front of him. "Guess I needed that," Rodney admitted. He massaged his forehead with his fingers, "I don't know the last time I had anything to eat."

"Aye, I suspected as much," Beckett said. "Can't have you falling apart on us, Rodney."

Who am I that these people take such good care of me, he asked himself humbly. "Thank you, Carson," Rodney said softly. Beckett nodded and waited with Rodney.

The communicator crackled. "Dr. McKay!" It was Grodin's voice.

Rodney answered, "On my way." He nodded at Carson and quickly made his way to the gate room. "What do you have?"

"It was broken off before we got a full message. But someone is hurt and they're having trouble getting everyone back to the gate," Grodin reported. He replayed the message and the static interfered as the message replayed. 

Damn you, John Sheppard. Before you go off planet again, you're leaving me some contingency plans, Rodney thought. "Okay, get a Jumper ready as soon as you can to back them up," Rodney decided. They should have had a team standing by, he realized.

It was in a gratifyingly short time that another team was ready and the Jumper poised to go through the gate. "Go. Go. Go," Rodney chanted. After the gate shut down, Rodney moved to the back of the room to fret.

Almost an hour later, the gate came to life. "Major Sheppard's IDC," reported Grodin.

Thank god, Rodney thought, sagging against the wall in relief.

"Get Dr. Beckett," said the voice of the medic. "We have wounded here."

Rodney keyed his communicator. "Beckett, you're wanted in the gate room. Wounded coming through."

"On my way," came a calm reply.

"Jumper coming through first," came John's voice. Rodney wanted to whimper in relief, but held on by main strength. "Worst of the wounded on the Jumper."

"Gate room clear when you're ready," Grodin answered Sheppard.

"Beckett, get your people up to the Jumper bay," Rodney directed. "Wounded coming through in there first."

"Aye," came the reply. The Jumper bay was slightly closer to the infirmary than the gate room, but not by much.

"We're about twenty minutes behind on foot," Sheppard said.

"Okay, I'm going to send a group through to help you once the Jumper is through," Rodney told him.

"Thanks," John said briefly. "Have them hold the gate for us."

"Got it," Rodney answered. Fuck. Who was left to send through? He didn't know. "Bates?" he called the only other name he could recall at the moment. "I need to send a team to hold the gate for Major Sheppard and they have like three minutes to get ready? Who's available?" Rodney asked frantically.

"I'll take care of it," came a swift reply. 

Rodney fidgeted in place and was flabbergasted to see Bates, Dr. Kusanagi and – were those cooks? – pounding into the gate room. Deciding to sort it out later, Rodney briefed them, "Sheppard needs you to hold the gate area. He's coming in on foot and there are probably wounded in his group. We don't know how many are with him." As Rodney was talking, someone was handing the team weapons and communicators.

As they were making sure everyone was ready, Grodin called, "Jumper coming through." The Puddle Jumper came through the gate and in the background, Rodney could hear Grodin directing the pilot to go up to the bay where the medical team was waiting.

"Shut down the gate and re-dial," Rodney directed to Grodin. While the gate was dialing, he turned to Bates, "Don't know what you'll be up against. We didn't see anything near the gate on the MALP but that was over an hour ago. Be careful."

Bates nodded and turned to his team. "Ready?" They nodded. One of the cooks went through first, the other cook and Kusanagi next and Bates brought up the rear. Upon receiving the "Clear" message from the team, Grodin shut down the gate again.

In the silence that followed, Rodney realized he was holding his breath. Breathe, he told himself. When the gate activated from the other side and Grodin announced, "Major Sheppard's IDC." Rodney moved to the gate area.

Major John Sheppard came through the gate first and warned, "We have some refugees coming through." Teyla came through leading a group of people who walked through the event horizon and stopped, gaping at the city. Teyla tugged on one woman's arm and said softly, "Come, we must let the others come through."

Rodney stepped up and said, "Over here," pointing to a clear area of the gate room. He didn't want to let these people loose in Atlantis until he knew more about what was going on. He had to trust John's judgment in bringing them with him until he had time to learn more.

There was minor chaos for a bit while about forty or fifty people came through the gate. Most of them sank down to the floor in the area Rodney had pointed to. Teyla moved among them, murmuring reassurances. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Bates and Kusanagi come through and signal to Grodin that he could shut down the gate.

In trying to help organize things, Rodney finally found himself facing John. Not knowing what else to say, he demanded, "And where have you been?"

"Went for a stroll, made some new friends, did some shopping, ended up in the middle of a civil war," John replied lightly. Rodney could see the exhaustion in his eyes and the way he moved carefully.

"You okay?" Rodney asked, concerned. He noted that John was probably hurt more than he would admit.

"It'll keep. Ford's in bad shape and I'm afraid Zalenka broke a leg. And some of the refugees need attention," John told him.

"Middle of a civil war?" Rodney asked. "How'd that happen?"

John shrugged. "Guess the town near the gate is prime property. We gated in during what must have been a lull in the fighting and we didn't know we were in a war zone until we were in the middle of it. Ford caught some shrapnel and Radek had part of a building fall on him." He looked about the room. "The locals were jamming our radios so we couldn't call for help and we couldn't move Ford without help. Didn't want to leave these people there, so we brought them with us. Figured they could move in with the Athosians on the mainland at some point. Or offer to take them back, once they're in better shape."

"Let Teyla sort it out?" Rodney asked.

"Probably for the best," John admitted. He looked at Rodney and asked with a tinge of wonder in his voice, "You sent _cooks_ to hold the gate for us?"

Rodney rolled his eyes. "You are so not going anywhere until we have better backup plans. After I sent the Jumper team after you, I had no idea who was left. Bates was the only name I could remember and I wasn't going to ask any questions when he showed up with them," Rodney explained, exasperated.

"They did fine," John admitted. He'd have to have a talk with Bates at some point, but right now he needed a shower and some sleep. He looked at Rodney and said, "You look like shit."

"You don't look any better," Rodney said with a grin. "And, no, you can't skip the infirmary. So don't go wandering off," Rodney said firmly. As John rolled his eyes, Rodney pointed out, "You're going to annoy Beckett until he tells you something about Ford so you might as well get yourself checked out. Don't tell me you're not hurt, even your hair is flat."

John looked at his feet for a moment and ran his hand over his head. Rodney noticed his hair? "You're right," he admitted softly.

"Get out of here," Rodney said brusquely. "I'll check on you and Zalenka when we're done here."

As John walked off toward the infirmary, he turned and said, "You did good, McKay. Thanks."

The last of the worry that Rodney didn't even realize was still there released its hold on him. Rodney shooed John on, "Go," he said, pointing.


End file.
